Rose White Piano Keys
by Melanie-Says
Summary: "I'm just a waiter, Haruhi! Maybe in some alternate universe would I be able to openly come out and scream to the world about how much I truly, deeply love you, but the reality is that any attempt from me is futile. We live in two different worlds and that's just what hurts the most about it. You're so close but so far away, never to be mine." (Waiter!Hosts AU)
1. Chapter 1

Rose White Piano Keys

Chapter One

_Haruhi had always believed that her brain was her most important organ; it worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, from the moment you arrive into the world until the minute you die. However, for some people, it stops working even before that. It quits mere seconds before you make the most important discovery in your life; the second that you fall hopelessly, irrevocably, deeply in love._

* * *

An average Friday at Aberi, the international fine dining establishment that had been raved about by critics and food lovers alike, is always more busy than any other day of the week, especially in the late spring and early summer when all the schools have their dances and the men were expected to bring their dates out for dinner, what they hadn't expected when they walked into the large brick building was that their counterparts wouldn't pay any attention to them, but instead the staff.

The main staff of Aberi was composed of six young men, fresh out of high school and college bound come the next semester, all of who had taken a job to help out with university tuition.

Tamaki, the longest working host there, had been said to be the main reason that so many young ladies had decided to spend every Friday and Saturday at the cafe. With his golden blonde hair and his piercing sapphire eyes, he barely had a real need to pull out his charm in order to get a good tip from the guests, but of course he did anyway, earning himself one of the biggest checks out of any of them.

Kyoya, Tamaki's raven haired best friend, had started out as an accountant for the establishment, but after the manager realized all the looks that he was getting as he walked into work everyday, he was put out front and he had been forced to become something of a duo with the blonde idiot.

Next were the copper-headed twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, who had originally come there as dishwashers, but driven their way into Tamaki's ranks when two other waiters hadn't shown up on a particularly busy Sunday evening. Their lack of acknowledgement of personal space and devious nature had been quite loved by many of the young guests dining that evening, and they had quickly become a sort of favorite.

Lastly, there was Takashi and Mitsukuni, also known as Mori and Hunny to their friends and even most of their regular customers. The budding friendship between the two cousins was seen as incredibly cute and adorable and many girls would often swoon when they saw Mori help Hunny carry the dishes over to the tables. Often they would see Hunny eye their desserts when they walked out with them, and would let him have a bite since he reminded them of little siblings they have or perhaps even a teddy bear. In return, he would give them the cutest smile he could muster before whispering a little thank you and trotting back off to his work station.

All in all, the men enjoyed their work and hadn't the slightest idea of what they'd do if their job happened to disappear from their lives, or rather what would happen if their friends ever decided to do anything else, which could very well happen if any of them ever broke the promise that they all set into place their first day of work.

_There is a fine line between work and your personal life, do not cross it._

They had all done fairly well in keeping that promise until a rather rainy Monday afternoon.

"Damn, it's really coming down out there, isn't it?" Hikaru noticed, scratching his head in disbelief at the thought that only a few hours ago it had been a seemingly bright and sunny day.

"It seems so," Kaoru added, moving around his twin with a large, circular tray full of food and placing it on the mahogany oval table in front of him. Hikaru noticed the creeping red blush that was invading the face of a teenage girl sitting at the table as Kaoru's hand made contact with her's when she attempted to take the silver plate from him. Her blonde hair had quickly fallen on her face, masking it but not before Kaoru had noticed also.

"I hope you enjoy your meal," He chirped sweetly, flashing a bright smile at the table before bowing and leaving again, passing by his twin once more, only to be annoyed by the sudden snickers.

"Aw, it seems like little Kaoru has an admirer!" Hikaru laughed as he slung his arm around his brother's shoulder, facing the direction that he had just walked away from.

"Shut up, Hikaru, don't embarrass her." Kaoru rolled his eyes, turning around and joining Hikaru as they both stared from afar at the green-eyed girl who still hadn't touched her pasta. The bright shades of pink and red in her face had toned down considerably, but she was still trying her best to conceal it, which Kaoru admittedly thought was adorable.

"You two! You're not getting paid to just stand there!" They heard a voice call from behind them. When the twins twirled around the were met with an annoyed glare come from none other than Tamaki Suoh, who was amazingly balancing four small trays on his arms yet still had managed to flip his gold spun hair out of his eyes.

"Whatever boss," Hikaru scoffed, taking his arm from around Kaoru's shoulder and trying to flick a piece of lint from off of his jet black vest.

"We're not getting paid _enough _to work the entire time either." Kaoru continued, noticing that one of his tables was finished and ready to have their plates picked up.

"Kao-chan! Isn't being with your friends payment enough?" Hunny chirped up sweetly, also carrying a tray full of various alcoholic drinks and green teas to a table full of college aged girls. Ever since one of them came there once three months ago and told all her friends, they made sure to stake the cafe everyday in an attempt to capture one of the waiter's attention, but instead they often just sat there, gossiping and swooning over them, much to the annoyance of the twins, who had switched tables with Hunny once one of them almost ripped Hikaru's shirt off of his own body.

"No, not really." The twins replied flatly, Hikaru removing dishes from a table while Kaoru wiped it clean. The honey colored blonde started a faint whimpering that seemed to grow higher pitched each passing moment, causing the entirety of the restaurant to look over at him with worry.

"But Hika-chan, Kao-chan..." He started choking out, grabbing a tissue from the box that Mori had brung over to him. "How c-could you s-say that?"

"I don't know sempai," Hikaru addressed, dumping the dirty dishes in a green cart that had already been filled to the brim with left over food, utensils, and plates.

"Maybe if something exciting happened every once in a while, we wouldn't dislike it nearly as much." Kaoru replied flatly, putting the cleaning rag back into the bucket of water near the glass windows.

"I'm sorry to inform you of this, but you should just be happy that you even have a job; don't complain about how fun it is considering that it's not _meant _to be fun." Kyoya mumbled as he passed by the twins and Hunny. It was obvious that he was annoyed by their manner.

"Well it wouldn't kill us to have something _new _happen." The twins answered in perfect unison, only to be stopped by the ringing of the bell as someone entered the building, causing the men to turn their attention to the door.

"Welcome." They greeted cheerfully, though were met with a surprise as a red haired man walked in and smiled at them.

"Hello boys, it's nice to see that you haven't gotten yourself fired yet." He greeted them, though then made eye contact with Tamaki before groaning.

"Don't say it-"

"Or rather, it's nice to see that _most _of you haven't gotten fired yet. Feel lucky Suoh, I'm still looking for a reason when it comes to you."

"Pleasure to see you too, sir." Tamaki answered, starting his sentence with a long sigh before moving out of the way for his boss.

"You know, we never quite learned _why _Ranka hates you so much." Hikaru and Kaoru mentioned, taking a step towards the tired blonde.

"Oh, that's a story that I just _love _to tell." Tamaki answered sarcastically before groaning, "It all started way back in high school-"

"Never mind, we're already bored with it." Hikaru interrupted him.

"Kyoya, can you give us a shortened version?" Kaoru asked his senior, who cleared his throat and looked completely bored with the situation.

"It may seem that fifteen year old Tamaki accidentally groped his then fourteen year old daughter." Kyoya replied, letting a corner of his mouth rise up in a sly smirk while the twins gasped.

"Are you absolutely serious?!" They exclaimed in unison, sharing a look of complete shock before bursting out into laughter.

"You're such a perv, boss!"

"I can't believe you did that!"

"Can't believe he did what?" They all heard a voice from behind them ask. When they turned around, they were surprised to see a small girl, roughly around the age of Hikaru and Kaoru, with brown hair that reached just above her shoulder, three pink clips keeping her bangs out of her eyes, and a matching pair of chocolate eyes staring up at them.

"And who are you?" Hikaru questioned the girl, walking up to her and leaning over until their faces were the same elevation, with his twin mimicking his motions on the side.

"Fujioka, Haruhi Fujioka." She replied flatly, looking rather annoyed at the display the twins were making. She could smell their very strong cologne and frankly she wasn't enjoying it; what she _was _enjoying was the looks of horror that the four men behind the twins had.

"Um, Hikaru, Kaoru, you might wanna stop standing so close to her." Hunny pleaded from behind them, pulling on their vests in an attempt to pull them back.

"And why should we do that?" Hikaru scoffed, taking one of the rose clips out of her hair.

"Hey! Give that back!" She exclaimed, reaching up for the clip but sadly couldn't do much considering her petite size.

"Hmmm," Hikaru started, "Kaoru, do you think we should give it back?"

"I don't know, Hikaru," Kaoru continued, "I really like this piece of plastic."

"Hikaru! Kaoru! _Give that back._" Tamaki commanded sternly, sharing a look of terror with the rest of the host club before attempting to take the clip out of Hikaru's hands.

Haruhi stood there annoyed as she watched six men try to wrestle for a simple clip, but was even more annoyed when she felt a hand reach out and accidentally touch the side of her breast. Immediately her face went red and a face popped out of the crowd.

"_I grabbed something squishy and I swear to God if it was attached to one of you I will kill you._" Hikaru shouted as he stood up and finally managed to grab the clip out of Mori's hands, but was quickly silenced when there was a deep boom from across the room.

"_Hikaru Hitachiin! I better not have just seen you fondle my daughter!_"

* * *

A:N: HEYLO WORLD I CAME BACK WITH YET AGAIN ANOTHER STORY, WOW DON'T I FEEL ACCOMPLISHED.

So I decided to do this AU because I've seriously been wanting to do this idea for so long but I never quite knew how to start it, but then, sometime while I was watching Les Miserables at this one opera house or theatre (Whichever one it is) I finally knew how I wanted to start it! Also, I'm not exactly sure on the pairing to be honest, so if you guys can vote in the poll on my blog (the one that says "favorite ouran host club pairing" or whatever) it would sure help me make my decision. Anywhosie, so I hope you at least kind of enjoyed it, perhaps add it to your follows or (even though I don't expect this already) even favorite it! A review to see how you liked it would also definitely make my day :)

Have a great (rest of the day if you live on the east coast with me) day :D


	2. Chapter 2

Rose White Piano Keys

Chapter Two

_Holy shit._

"_No sir! I did not in fact do that!"_

Ranka stood there for a few moments, cocking one of his eyebrows up and letting his dark brown eyes scan the ginger headed man. There was no way in _hell _that he was going to pretend he did not just see that lewd little pervert touch his precious daughter. Tamaki was bad enough, two was just too much to handle.

With his flaming diva wig intact, Ranka slowly took a step towards the older Hitachiin, taking long, deep breaths along the way in a failed effort to keep his temper down.

"_Hikaru!_ _He's coming towards us!_" Kaoru hissed at his twin, frightened beyond wit of what was going to happen next. They couldn't afford to lose this job, the money earned went towards their apartment, tuition, and other utilities.

"_I'm not blind, I can see that quite well!_" Hikaru growled back, pushing his clinging brother off of him before putting one foot out of the perfectly formed line to begin his perilous journey to meet his employer halfway.

"Listen, sir, it was an accident, I assur-"

"_Silence! Do you even understand the severity of what you've just done?!_" Ranka yelled at him, getting up on his tippy toes in an attempt to see eye to eye with the kid. Over the past year, Hikaru and his twin had grown quite a bit, really all the servers had, and now he was just a midget in comparison. Like any good boss though, he just raised his voice to make up for any lost respect.

"O-o-of course sir, I promise you I-" Hikaru stuttered before once again getting cut off by the spitting fest that was the mouth of Ranka Fujioka.

"_You dare touch my little Haruhi! You are just as bad as... as..." _Ranka started dramatically, taking a step back into the light of the overhead lamp to illuminate his crying face, grabbing a tissue from the conveniently placed napkin box sitting on the table next to him. "_As him!"_ He finished, putting up a hand to wipe away a tear from his eye before pointing accusingly at Tamaki who was leaning against the wall, obviously enjoying the situation prior to that moment.

"It was six _years _ago, Ranka!" Tamaki sputtered, his face twisted in annoyance at the over abundant display of drama his boss was performing. All of the guests in the business were captivated by the scene unfolding in front of them, the never ending spiral of despair that Ranka was going through was more addicting than caffeine.

"_It might as well have been six seconds ago!_" Ranka sobbed some more, blowing his nose into the tissue before he made eye contact with his unamused daughter. It took no more than two seconds and five steps before he had her locked in his embrace, stroking her soft brown hair as he tightened his grip around her.

"Oh _Haruhi!_ Why do these things always happen to _you?_" Ranka cried, though taking a moment to make sure his make up wasn't smudged.

"Listen, sir, we'd _love _to stay and coo over your over glorified daughter with you, but we have places to be, people to see, you know?" Hikaru interrupted, turning around and beginning his walk to the stairs leading to the employee work room.

"_Not so fast, Hitachiin~!" _Ranka chorused in his sing song voice, letting go of his daughter to walk right up to Hikaru and try his best to get in his face, an eerily creepy smile creeping across his cheeks as he knew what was going to happen. "_Since you are so eager to make it up to your boss that you didn't mean to sexually harass his only beloved child, let alone daughter, you are going to work until closing and clean up afterward."_

A minute went by with no sound, not a single beep, cough, giggle, only the intense gazes between the two men as everything escalated.

"What?"

"You heard me, this is your punishment for not being able to keep your little hormones under control."

"_It was on accident!_"

"Well sometimes accidents get you in trouble. Now chop chop, there is an empty table for you to clean." Ranka smirked evilly, turning around and letting his long hair swish the face of his employee in a lovely bitch slap before skipping off, only to take a brief moment to stop in front of Tamaki and shake his head in disgust.

"Damn Hikaru, you screwed up." Kaoru mumbled, biting his lip out of the second hand embarrassment for his brother.

"Wow Kaoru, thank you so much for stating the obvious."

"Anytime, now if you excuse me, I'm gonna get home. I hope you have a key." Kaoru laughed as he patted his brother on the back and walked off, joined by Kyoya, Mori and Hunny.

For a good thirty or so minutes, Hikaru did nothing; just standing there in the empty doorway as he replayed the moments that ruined his perfectly good week day. Had it not been for the complaining of one of the crazy girls, he would have completely forgotten he was still at his job. Soon enough after that, Hikaru was cleaning off the tables. It was 11 o'clock on a Monday night and he was most certainly ready to go home since he had finally finished his shift, but was surprised when he found Tamaki standing outside leaning against the wall with his vest off and the first two buttons of his crisp white collared shirt unbuttoned, cigarette in hand.

"I didn't know you smoke, Tamaki." Hikaru started, trying his best to get his own vest into his over stuffed bag.

Tamaki smirked at his friend.

"I'm French, what do you expect?" Tamaki joked, putting out the cigarette against the brick wall.

"I don't honestly know, you just don't strike me as someone who does."

"I can't honestly blame you, I only smoke when I'm pretty stressed out though, mostly when Ranka makes his rounds." Tamaki answered, sighing as he brought up that familiar name.

"Tell me about it, I'm getting a headache just remembering it." Hikaru groaned, staring down at the grassy area before pulling out a cigarette himself and lighting it, standing next to Tamaki as he opened a bottle of water and drank a sip from it.

"You know, you should probably apologize to that girl, what did Ranka say her name was again?" Tamaki attempted to remember, going through a various cacophony of names that sounded like they began with an 'h' but at this point Hikaru was too lazy to analyze them all.

"Haruhi." He interrupted, taking a long drag before shaking his head. "I doubt that it will happen though, it will probably blow over by tomorrow and all will be well."

The blonde beside him laughed a bit before bending over and picking up his black leather bag.

"He still remembers something I did six years ago, don't expect him to forget something that just happened today Hikaru." Tamaki warned, chuckling darkly before he gave a slight wave to his friend and walking off down the well lighted pathway to his apartment.

"Yea, but at least I didn't completely grope her." Hikaru mumbled under his breath before examining the lighted object in his hand.

"Those aren't very healthy for you."

"Do you honestly think I give a damn?" Hikaru asked, turning his head to the side to see the petite girl from earlier standing there with a crossed look on her tiny little face.

"No but it doesn't hurt to try." Haruhi shrugged her shoulders, walking to the bench that was right beside Hikaru and sitting down.

"Believe me, if you were in my situation right now, you would need one too." Hikaru scoffed, taking another drag before puffing the smoke out in repeated huffs.

"Um, Mr. Hitachiin-"

"Just call me Hikaru. I don't have formalities when I'm not even twenty yet."

"Alright then Hikaru, I just want to let you know that I told my dad that you didn't do anything. He was being a major drama queen over it." Haruhi attempted to reassure the ginger but to no avail Hikaru just didn't care at this point.

"At least I know we have _that_ in common." He muttered sarcastically, putting the cigarette out on the brick wall and picking up his bag.

"You didn't need to start it though." Haruhi pointed out then, stopping Hikaru in his tracks and looking at him with the same unamused expression she gave her father only a few hours prior.

"_Are you kidding me?_" Hikaru almost yelled at her, trying his best to keep his voice under control at the little girl, who may he remember is his boss' daughter.

"Yes, it was not necessary to take my clip in the first place." Haruhi replied flatly, rolling her eyes.

"It was just a joke!"

"It sure didn't seem like one." Haruhi responded before shrugging her shoulders and turning to make her way back into the building.

"You're kidding me, right?" Hikaru asked one last time, breathless from all the screaming that he wasn't even doing.

"Oh Hikaru, I think as we grow to know each other you'll see that I'm very rarely kidding." Haruhi giggled before closing the door shut behind her.

Hikaru stood there in the warm summer night staring at that door. Minutes passed by before he finally snapped out of it and just laughed, kicking a rock hard at the red wall before making his was down the path that Tamaki had took only minutes before.

A:N: Heylo world, I'm a tad bit tired so no exclamation mark today haha.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I must say, I am definitely enjoying how this story is coming along. AU's are always fun to write before the world is so different and so many things can happen.

So yea, I'm sorry for the hiatus, I've had soccer literally 6 times a week for the past month and I'm always exhausted (not to mention all of the honors classes I'm taking so there is some more shit to put on my to do list. I have to write an essay for Of Mice and Men which I am currently procrastinating on doing.) so when I finally got a break today, I watched a couple music videos, (The King For A Day by Pierce The Veil music video gives me life, I mean you don't even understand.) slaughtered a couple songs with my horrible covers of them (If my brothers hear Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer one more time they are going to kill me haha.) and then decided to write some fanfiction so here I am.

Anyway, even with my extreme exhaustion and such, I sincerely hope that I gave you a chapter that you liked and brought a smile on your face at least once, I hope to see your reviews, favorites and/or follows :)

Thank you for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

Rose White Piano Keys

Chapter Three

"So Tamaki, how exactly are your piano studies coming along?" Suko, the sous chef, asked the blonde. Suko was in her early twenties, a tall brunette with a matching pair of chocolate eyes who was working her way through a culinary arts degree despite it being rumored that she had been a model at one point, but any questions on the claims were always brushed off and ignored. Many always wondered what had stopped the girl from going through with the rumors had they been true, but in the end they just accepted the fact that they very well may never know.

"I haven't exactly played in quite a while, with school and work and studying, I don't really have time for doing the things that I enjoy." He answered, picking up one of the dishes that Suko had placed in front of him. Today hadn't necessarily been busy which was surprising considering it was a Friday night after all. Even the usual crazed girls must have taken some time off since their usual booth was inhabited by a rather elderly couple who had been exchanging loving looks all night. Tamaki did admit that he quite loved this type of evening seeing as everything was calm, there was no chaos to behold and all was simply cheerful.

"That's quite a shame, why don't you play now then?" Suko suggested, gesturing him to the navy blue grand piano that sat upon the elevated area to the kitchen's right. Tamaki raised an eyebrow at the woman, not quite sure if she understood what his job was to be frank.

"I don't think that would be appropriate."

"Why not? It's not like there is an entire rush around here to get everything done. Barely anyone is here today, besides, I greatly enjoy it when you play." Suko replied, washing down the serving area with a cloth before giving a reassuring smile to Tamaki.

"I guess I will then."

After grinning a bit at Suko, he walked around and dropped off the plates before tapping on the shoulder of the nearest person he could find, Kyoya.

"Is there a particular reason you decided to bother me?" Kyoya asked, turning around from the table he was giving the wine option to.

"I just wanted to ask if you could cover my tables for a bit, I'm going to play for a while to take my mind off of things." Tamaki explained, even pointing to the stage in case Kyoya had any doubts as to what he was talking about.

"I see no reason why I should."

"Aw, c'mon, Kyoya! For a friend?" Tamaki begged, even pulling out his little pout, much to the irritation of his best friend.

"Fine, fine, just stop making your lower lip quiver like that."

"Thank you, Kyo-Kyo!" He laughed, hugging his best friend before running away. Seeing his reaction to his little pet name would be funny, but also would end in something along the lines of "I take that back".

When he got to the grand instrument, he stood there for a moment to take in it's beauty. It was made out of real mahogany wood, crafted by one of Japan's finest and the best part was that only 2 people in the entire restaurant were allowed to touch it: one of which was Tamaki.

Despite how much Ranka had despised him since he had gotten there, even he couldn't just try and act like he hadn't enjoyed Suou's playing, it was quite a masterpiece within itself, and after relentless begging Tamaki had managed to convince him that he should perhaps have been allowed to dabble around on it every once in a while, with strict rules being intact of course.

As Tamaki sat down on the bench, he carefully looked around to make sure that out of some stroke of bad luck the restaurant had filled to the brim with a billion customers with poor Kyoya not having enough hands to make them all happy. When he realized that his suspicions were ludicrous to be quite simple in the fact, he turned back around and stared at the ivory keys, being adorned by black marble for the sharps and flats.

"You should play Pachabel's Canon!" Suko shouted from the kitchen, handkerchief in hand as she cleaned a bit of sauce off of a finished plate to make the appearance look more pristine.

Tamaki turned around once more and smiled at her before digging into his memory and finally letting his hands flow across the keyboard, his fingers delicately and intricately touching each key before moving on to the next, letting the music flow through him and allowing him to play his inner frustrations out. It was always a near ethereal experience whenever he played as his burdens were lifted and he knew that in the process he was helping other people too. The last time he had managed to get some playing time in at the cafe, a young man and woman had come up to him and thanked him for playing before handing him an inappropriately large tip and when he questioned them as to why they both had the same answer: because there are some parts of the soul which can only be rested through music, no matter how reluctant they are to be tamed.

In a matter of a few minutes, he'd seem to have attracted an entire crowd of people from throughout the restaurant, a few even leaving money at the feet of the piano before sitting down again and listening to Tamaki play. His eyes made contact with the old man from earlier who had been sitting at the booth with his elderly wife. Tamaki smiled a bit at how their hands intertwined and their eyes lit up just from being in each others company; it was truly remarkable to behold. After all those years of being married and they still loved each other enough to have that spark in their eyes wasn't something you saw everyday and it made Tamaki's heart swell up even more than before.

"Any suggestions?" Tamaki asked the crowd after he had finished playing, scanning them over as they all pondered on what they could possibly want to be listening to.

"Clair de lune."

Tamaki looked back over into the crowd to find the owner of that vaguely familiar voice, only to be astonished when his eyes met none other than Haruhi Fujioka's.

After immediately wiping the shock off of his face, he simply grinned at the girl and nodded his head in her direction.

"If you wish." He answered before playing again, not stopping until it was a mere 20 minutes before closing. The crowd had completely vanished, with the elderly couple being the last to go, but not before shaking Tamaki's hand and leaving him an abnormally large tip simply for being "a man of good taste". Tamaki simply bowed and watched as they exited the building and walked down the street as they disappeared into the night.

"That was quite lovely," Haruhi slowly walked up to the other side of the piano bench that Tamaki had rested on, "I had no idea that you could play the piano like that."

"Words can't even begin to describe how much I love it." Tamaki laughed a bit, letting his hand lightly stroke the keys again seeing as he more than likely won't get to play again for a while.

"How did you get that good?"

"Well, I started playing mainly to make my mom happy, but then that later branched into something I found comfort and love in." He replied, his mind flashing back to a small six year old Tamaki first learning to play a simple version of 'Mary Had a Little Lamb' much to the joy of his mother. Her clapping and excitement at the piece had given him the motivation to keep going.

"Wow, that's amazing Tamaki," Haruhi smiled at him, deep down inside she felt bad for not letting her judgment on him from so many years ago pass. He was definitely more than just a pretty face.

"But that's enough about me, how have you been since... well... you know..." Tamaki answered as he felt his face grow red hot in embarrassment.

"Things have been fine," Haruhi replied, she wanted to save Tamaki the embarrassment of mentioning the incident but it seemed as if it was already too late. "I recently got told of my inheritance of the restaurant so I actually guess you could say that it's been better than fine."

"I'm quite jealous, I wish I could be financially stable like that."

"I don't know, I don't think you would really appreciate being tied down like this very much."

Tamaki's eyes got wide in curiosity at that comment. What in the world would possess her to say that?

"Why would you say that?"

"Well it's not a very freeing position of being told what your future is going to hold."

"_But _at least you know that you'll always be able to live in a house and have food." Tamaki replied back, maybe a bit too sharply as he witnessed the look of confusion that was slowly occurring on Haruhi's face.

"I mean of course that's great but I would like to think that there's more to life than the same old routine, that's all I meant by that." Haruhi managed to get out, quite embarrassed at how spoiled she probably came across as.

Tamaki smiled a bit at Haruhi, feeling a tad bit sorry for her when she put it that way. After all, she did have a point about that.

"That's what being young is all about though! Getting up and going outside and seeing the world! It's just up to you to change up your routine." Tamaki said as he smiled widely. Haruhi noticed the adventure in his eyes and the way they kind of glazed over as he started to day dream. Quite frankly, this brought on another new perspective of him that Haruhi never thought he had within him.

"Thanks Tamaki, I'd like to try to do something other than just stay here in this boring place, right?" Haruhi grinned at him and he returned the favor ever so vibrantly.

"Of course, of course, I would even love to help you, but as of right now, it's getting late and I have to make it home." He answered as he slowly rose from his the piano bench, stretching out his back after hours of resting in one position. Looking around the restaurant, he could see the final family retreating from their table to leave so he started to make his way over to pick up the last couple plates, ushering Kyoya off as a way to tell him that he'll take care of the rest. In the process, he had dragged Haruhi along with him while she just quietly watched him work. When she saw that there were still a few plates left that Tamaki would have to take a second trip to retrieve, she picked them up herself in order to bring them to Suko to clean.

After they had dropped the dishes off, Tamaki looked back towards the little brunette next to him. She was so different than what he had imagined the daughter of such a rich man would be, and it was only for the better.

"Thank you, but there was no need to do that."

"Well just take it as payment for playing for me earlier. I greatly enjoy it when you play." She beamed at the blonde.

"It was my pleasure-" Tamaki assured, but was cut off by the sound of Ranka fuming.

"_Stop harassing my daughter, Suoh!_" He yelled from across the restaurant, ready to hop over tables in an effort to strangle Tamaki.

"I wouldn't dream of it sir!" He yelled back, turning his head back to Haruhi and just giving her a little wave before he heard the laughter coming from the kitchen.

"_Sure you wouldn't, Suoh!_" Suko interrupted from inside the kitchen. Tamaki rolled his eyes but couldn't help laughed a little bit before he bent down and took Haruhi's hand and lightly pressing his lips to it.

"It was a pleasure to entertain you this evening, Haruhi." Tamaki finally finished, making his way to the employee work room and being careful to not attract the unwanted attention of Ranka again.

Haruhi stared off at him leaving, a smile still plastered on her face, not to be unnoticed by her father.

"_Haruhi! _Don't hang around with that little blonde troublemaker! He's up to no good, I just _know _it!" Ranka fumed, eying on the supposed troublemaker.

Haruhi just laughed at her father's comment, still not removing her eyes from the direction that he moved off into.

_People sure change, don't they?_

A:N: So I'm very_ very _sorry that I have been gone so long but let me tell you, the past couple months have been a roller coaster. I have gone to concerts and I took the SAT and now I have colleges writing to me, but most importantly, I have finally found it in my heart to listen to My Chemical Romance again without crying, which quickly went out the window because I spent all of yesterday watching interviews and listening to The Black Parade oOPS. (It's crazy thinking of how differently I look at these songs than even last year, I mean I Don't Love You is now the saddest song I have ever listened to how did I not notice this?)

Anywhosie, I stopped writing this chapter way back in October so there is probably a writing difference and I apologize for that but I just wanted to get a chapter out to motivate me to write some more, you know? But yea, I am full on striving to get back in the way of things.

Anyway, I hope you at least enjoyed the chapter! Please review if you would like :)


	4. Chapter 4

Rose White Piano Keys

Chapter Four

"No, for the last time, we do _not _need a year supply of coffee." Kaoru told his twin who had hauled in a giant basket full of instant coffee, the aroma surrounding their cart with the musky scent of dirt and cheap beans. Today was Saturday, also known as the day that the twins were expected to go out and fulfill adult duties like shopping for groceries, but that was incredibly hard when you had a rather childish older twin breathing down your neck for every non-necessity. One moment it was a fifty two ounce mug, the next it was a stuffed animal that started singing when you pressed it's paw, also not impressing Kaoru very much despite his twin's convincing 'but it lights up!' argument.

"But_ why?_" Hikaru whined, tugging at his brother's sleeve and while attempting to resist the urge to jump into the giant pit full of cheap rainbow pillows to his right, instead tugging out two lavender pillows when Kaoru wasn't looking.

"Because I'm in charge of the money for a reason and we don't need that. It's hard enough to be responsible for myself let alone you too." Kaoru replied, throwing one of the pillows that Hikaru had lugged into their cart back into the large cardboard bin it was held captive in.

"Well I'm the oldest so what I say goes!"

"Obviously not in our parents eyes." Kaoru mumbled sarcastically, rolling his eyes at Hikaru. The older twin puffed out his cheeks and crossed his arms only to have his eyes grow wide in disbelief as he looked over to see an entire group of people he either didn't want to see or didn't expect to see standing right in front of him.

First in his line of site, Hikaru and Kaoru's personal fangirls from the restaurant, the ones notorious for the incident where they almost removed Hikaru's clothes from his body. Hikaru felt a giant shiver go down his spine and raise goosebumps on his arms as he remembered the scarring, horrid incident as if it were just yesterday.

Right to the left of them was none other than Haruhi Fujioka, probably the greater of the two surprises that he didn't expect today nevertheless. She was dressed in a rather plain, but still adequately pretty dress. It was made of yellow plaid with a thin, white sash surrounding her tiny waistline. If Hikaru had to be honest, the entire concoction was probably of her dad's own doing.

"Is that Haruhi?" Kaoru asked suddenly, staring off into the same direction as his twin. Immediately his face turned into one of horror as he realized that right behind the short girl was the thankfully oblivious fangirls, gazing into a fish tank full of salmon. Just like Hikaru, he felt the vivid memories returning to him as he relived the moments where his poor brother was almost dragged into a estrogen-filled abyss.

"Now why would the heiress of such a well established restaurant be in the middle of a supermarket?" Hikaru wondered out loud, slowly creeping closer towards his junior. While he didn't care at all for Haruhi herself, this was changing his expectation as to what the rich life style was supposed to be like in the first place.

"I don't know Hikaru, but frankly it's not our place to find out." Kaoru warned his brother, attempting to grab at his sleeve to hold him back but his loose grip was soon lost as Hikaru started inching even closer towards the brunette.

"Well why don't we go ask?"

"_Did you not just listen to what I just said, Hikaru?_"

"No, I wasn't really paying attention." Hikaru answered, grabbing a newspaper from the stand next to him, flipping it open until it covered the bottom half of his face and as normally as he possibly could, started his walk over to the dried seaweed where Haruhi was standing. Kaoru first stood there, completely over any notion of even attempting to protect Haruhi from Hikaru's annoying antics, but once he imagined the scary image of Ranka strangling Hikaru, he grabbed a newspaper to also cover his face and started moving towards the his idiot twin.

"_Hikaru!_" Kaoru hissed, pulling down his newspaper momentarily to check for both the location of his twin and also the hope that his weak disguise was enough to still keep the group of girls at the fish tanks clueless.

Out of the corner of his eye, Kaoru saw the group of girls start to move away into the next aisle, one by one until they were finally out of sight. At this, Kaoru started a full scale sprint towards his twin who was getting much to close to the boss' daughter; it was time for the last resort.

Hikaru in the meanwhile was getting closer to Haruhi, almost completely disregarding the fact that his silliness was one moment away from bringing complete chaos in the form of hormonal girls, but when he was about ten feet away from actually being able to physically touch Haruhi's shirt, he was suddenly jumped on by someone who he quickly realized was quite familiar with him.

"_What is your problem?!" _Kaoru fiercely whispered to him, wrapping his arms and legs around the torso and neck of his older brother and leaning back in an insane attempt to bring him back to their cart full of groceries.

"_My problem?! I'm not the one who jumped on someone's back in the middle of the store!_" Hikaru yelled aloud, garnering the attention of not just many people around them, but also Haruhi down the aisle from them. Immediately her face went ghost white as she quickly recognized the rather handsome faces of the two men causing all the ruckus.

_'Please don't tell me that's who I think it is,' _Haruhi thought as she closed her eyes and silently begged to anyone in her mind that would listen, but was severely disappointed when she opened up her eyes again and still saw the disastrous scene ahead of her. Two red headed gentlemen, each making eye contact with her as they were giving off the type of idiocy that Haruhi didn't even expect from them. That shows how much she actually knew about those two.

Haruhi quickly turned around and started quickly walking away in the opposite direction from the chaotic state of the aisle. She had felt her face grow warm and red with the second hand embarrassment the twins were causing her to feel. The basket in her hand seemed to get heavier and slow her down as she attempted her escape from this terrifying situation, only to be stopped by the two people she wanted to avoid the most.

"I am _so _sorry! I tried to stop him, I really did! Please don't tell your dad about this, _I beg of you!_" Kaoru got out in one giant breath, looking hopeless when it came to the rather energetic twin next to him. Haruhi just had a blank expression on her face, blinking twice and then exchanging glances between the two men.

"No, no, it's fine, I just-" Haruhi eventually started to get out, only to be interrupted by Hikaru.

"So, can you please explain why you are _grocery shopping_ Ms. Million Dollar Heiress?" Hikaru asked, obviously over run with curiosity. Haruhi quickly examined the twins; one of them, Kaoru she presumed, had that fresh out of bed look right on top of his head; his hair was kind of swayed to one side as if he had tried to do something with it this morning, but didn't have enough time because of his obvious baby sitting duties. Admittedly, he still made it look amazing. The one opposite from him, Hikaru she assumed, was quite the opposite. His hair was styled to it's usual style and he didn't look nearly as run down as his twin did when it came to his facial expressions; it made Haruhi wonder just how much time each of them spent before leaving to make the store at eight in the morning.

"I highly doubt that you would believe me if I told you," Haruhi started, looking at the shelf that she was standing by and stood back before she admired all the different spices decorating the shelves.

"Aw c'mon, after all the racket we caused-"

"_You _caused." Kaoru corrected, straightening out their cart full of various groceries and what looked like many random collections of infomercial items.

"Excuse me, after all the racket _I _caused, I think it's safe to say that I would like to at least know the answer." Hikaru finished, rolling his eyes a bit at the revised part of his sentence.

"Well, my dad has a certain philosophy of his that he is making sure gets carried down to me," Haruhi starts, picking up a few items from the shelf and placing it in her basket, "a restaurant is only as good as the owner."

The twins scrunched up their faces in their state of confusion, one of them even raised an eyebrow.

"And what is that supposed to do with anything?" The one on the right questioned.

"Well, in the spirit of that philosophy, I have to be able to buy good ingredients from local vendors and then prepare a single meal by myself for one of the chef's." Haruhi finished, starting to walk off with the twins and their cart in tow.

"That's stupid considering that you can just pay someone to do that," Hikaru mumbled, more out loud than to himself which earned him a punch in the arm by Kaoru. He pouted and rubbed the spot on his arm where it now hurt.

"Well believe it or not, we rose to the so called 'high life' so I don't know why you didn't expect this." Haruhi absentmindedly continued the conversation.

"Huh?"

"Yea? It's the reason that I already knew Tamaki?" Haruhi kept going, honestly surprised at the reactions she was getting from this news.

"Wait, so you're telling me that you remember _not _being rich?" Hikaru asked, running his hand through his hair. When it fell again it only seemed to fall into right back into perfect place.

"I didn't even realize that this was all so new to you," Kaoru added, also confused at the news.

"Of course, up until university I went to public school at the same school that Tamaki went to, my father and I don't actually live in some grand luxurious apartment contrary to your popular belief." Haruhi mentioned, moving towards the checkout line finally.

"Well then what's the point of being rich?" Hikaru asked, rolling his eyes and scratching the back of his head.

"That's the thing, we aren't making a point of being rich." Haruhi answered, starting to put her stuff on top of the conveyor belt only to have her job taken over by Kaoru when he pulled out numerous things from her basket and put it on the belt for her.

"Ha, I know if I were rich, I probably wouldn't have the same philosophy that you and your dad share," Hikaru laughed, sitting on 2 giant boxes on the floor that used to hold various fruits in them. The few items that Haruhi was nearly ready to pay for had already made their way through to scanning as she started fiddling with her wallet in order to find her debit card.

"I don't know, I quite enjoy the simpler life if I'm being completely honest," Haruhi admitted, sliding her card through the machine. "all that rich people stuff just isn't for me."

"That's actually really awesome if you think about it," Kaoru started, picking up the bagged groceries for Haruhi and handing them to her. "You have the option to not learn all these things but you take it anyway. That's pretty amazing really."

Haruhi smiled at Kaoru while she accepted the bags and he smiled back. She took note of who the nicer twin was in this pair when she back tracked their conversation and her last run in after closing with Hikaru.

"Whatever," Hikaru muttered to himself, finally getting up from the boxes before he started laying their own items down on the conveyor belt. Kaoru gave his twin a harsh look, telling him that he better lay off the attitude while Hikaru stuck his tongue out, not caring too much about what his younger brother had to say about it.

"Well, even though it was kind of rocky at the beginning, it was nice to see you two," Haruhi started, exchanging glances of the childish Hikaru to the smiling Kaoru again as she waved him goodbye and started her descent towards the door.

Once she was out of ear shot, Hikaru looked to the side at Kaoru who had gotten out cash to pay for their purchase.

"Hey, why were you so friendly to her?"

"Who? You mean Haruhi?"

"Yea, I mean what was up with that?"

"Well there is no reason not to be, beside being our boss' daughter she is still a human after all." Kaoru answered, counting out the correct amount of change before he handed it over.

Hikaru looked back towards the exit that Haruhi took; Kaoru was right in some sense, he had no reason to not be nice to her, but other than general curiosity Hikaru didn't find any interest in showing any real emotions towards her.

"So, are you coming or am I just gonna leave you here for the store manager to call me later asking to pick up a lost child?" Kaoru grinned, putting all of their bags in their cart again as Hikaru laughed dryly and followed his brother out of the store.

A:N: YO YO YO YO ALL YOUUUU SUCKA MC'S AIN'T GOT NOTHIN ON ME-

Sorry, I saw the opportunity once I wrote the first yo and I took it. (No regretssss)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, review, favorite, and follow if you so desire but I have a question to ask of anyone reading. Is it possible that you guys could leave me book suggestions in the reviews? I need a really cute story to read (Like 'Anna and the French Kiss' if any of you have read that) because I haven't really read in a while in all honesty and I am dying for a cute story so if you could please help me out that would be _fantastic! _Thanks a lot, and I'll let you get back to your day haha :D


	5. Chapter 5

Rose White Piano Keys

Chapter Five

"_What are you going to do with all this sushi?_" The cashier asked Tamaki as he got out his wallet to pay for his groceries. He chuckled a little bit before as he looked over again to see the twelve packs of sushi the cashier was scanning and remembered just exactly why he was buying that ridiculous number of sushi packs.

"Well, my friend has been down with the flu lately so I figured that it would be a big help to buy her some of her favorite food," Tamaki replied, passing over the money to the lady behind the counter.

"Aw, that's sweet." She smiled, putting the sushi in bags and handing it to Tamaki. He bobbed his head up and down to agree with her before looking out of the window and seeing a certain familiar brunette walking down the street, just in front of the store.

"_Is that...?_"

"Come again, and I hope your friend feels better." The cashier said as she gave a slight wave towards the blonde as he dashed out of the building.

Tamaki exited the old store only to be greeted with a blast of hot air, leaving him stunned for a moment before he looked again to his left and saw Haruhi Fujioka coming along the pathway right towards him.

"_Haruhi!_" He yelled as he started running right towards her. The girl's head automatically popped up from her locked gaze and her expression of boredom changed into one of shock.

"Tamaki-senpai?" She questioned, bracing herself for the impact of her tall senior and his multiple plastic bags filled with what looked like sushi.

"If there was one person I never expected to see out in public, it would be you." Tamaki commented, reaching for the edge of his shirt in order to wipe the sweat that had already accumulated on his face. Being outside for less than a minute had already taken quite the toll on him and if he was being honest, he wasn't very happy about it.

"Well, every once in a while I'm supposed to go out and buy ingredients to make a meal for my dad, it's part of my training to be a good restaurant owner." Haruhi explained, holding up a few bags of her own groceries. Tamaki noted how she looked as if she was struggling to carry them so much to Haruhi's relief, he promptly took the heavy bags off of her arm and added them to his load. "So can I ask why you're out and about today?"

Tamaki nodded, opening up one of the many bags he was holding in order for Haruhi to sneak a peek inside.

"Suko, she's my friend who is a sous chef at your father's restaurant, has been sick lately so I thought that after all she's done for me the least I could do is go out and buy her some food so she doesn't have to do it herself." Tamaki answered, pulling the bags back and even smiling a bit at Haruhi. Ever since their talk at the restaurant a few weeks back, it seemed a lot easier to speak to her, which for Tamaki, was both a blessing and a curse considering how Haruhi's father acted towards him.

"That's awfully nice of you," Haruhi replied, starting her walk down the street again with Tamaki in tow. "I didn't realize that you and Suko were that close."

"Times used to be hard, you know? I'm just a college student trying to support myself and having someone to support me made it that much easier." Tamaki admitted, letting a giant grin caress his face as they got to the corner where Aberi was. As they turned and made their way to the door on the side where the employees entered, Tamaki gave the bags back to Haruhi who thanked him profusely and then set his own bags down on the wood bench next to the door to give his arms a much needed break.

"It was nice seeing you again, Tamaki." Haruhi stated as she got out a ring of keys and tried to find the correct one to open it.

"Here, borrow my key," Tamaki interrupted, reaching into his jean pocket and pulling out two keys and a cigarette, which had dropped to the ground. Haruhi slightly scowled at the cigarette, not to be unnoticed by Tamaki.

"Is something wrong?"

"Why is it that not only Hikaru, but also you smoke?" Haruhi asked Tamaki, who exhaled a deep breath and slightly scratched the back of his head, considering his next words very carefully.

"Because they're good stress relievers," Tamaki admitted, picking up the cigarette and wiping the tiny indent of dirt off of it. "which when you're working a job like this is something you definitely need."

Haruhi furrowed her eyebrows in annoyance at the comment, letting it aggravate her more than it probably should have, and quickly unlocked the door before practically shoving the key back in Tamaki's hand.

"I didn't realize that this job was so bothersome to you."

Tamaki slowly realized the impact of his words and started shaking his head abundantly. The last thing he needed was Haruhi telling Ranka about how he was complaining about his job in his off time.

"I didn't mean it like _that!_ All I meant was that just as with any job, it is stressful to balance my other priorities along with it!" Tamaki attempted to assure Haruhi. Her facial expression softened but she still looked mildly hurt by what he said. "It's not like I _hate _it here or anything."

Haruhi slightly scoffed at his last few words, rolling her big, brown eyes, before opening the door and walking inside, not turning back around to say goodbye.

_Maybe he is an asshole, _Haruhi thought as she shut the door behind her.

Tamaki inhaled deeply and closed his eyes for a moment, letting the sun's hot rays hit his face as he tried to pretend that he didn't just upset his boss' daughter. _God, _he thought, _I'm such an idiot!_

Slowly he walked back down the path towards the sidewalk and as soon as he saw that no one was coming, he started his ascent down the street towards a crosswalk. From the spot where he was waiting for the light to turn, he could already see Suko's apartment. It was directly under the shade of a rooftop garden and green house and he could see the hundreds of pink cherry blossom leaves that were sitting on top of her outdoor patio table.

The sudden feeling of something hitting his leg snapped him out of his trance as he saw a little girl around the age of five bump into him, look up at his face, and smile wildly with one of her front teeth missing. As Tamaki returned a grin, he noticed how she was wearing blue denim overalls which had the pant legs rolled up, on one side longer than the other, and was wearing red shirt underneath it that had the emblem of what seemed to be a baseball team on it. He noticed just how happy she looked with her bright red hair all combed out into a giant poof ball and her brown eyes shining that he almost didn't completely understand how treacherous it was when she set foot onto the paved street.

Immediately, his eyes went wide as he noticed her take another step into the crosswalk. Tamaki looked down the street to see that it was for the most part empty, except for one car that was coming up in the distance, seeming to speed up more and more as it got closer and closer to the intersection.

His attention snapped back to the kid in the street and he made a break for it, she was already halfway across the crosswalk in the two seconds Tamaki had turned his head and she was well on her way to stepping right into the path of the speeding car. As he started running across the street, for a split moment, Tamaki turned his head back towards the car, noticing the driver having his head down and not even looking like he was paying attention. For what seemed like the longest second of his life, he thought that both him and the tiny girl were about to die, but with only a moment left to spare, he quickly grabbed the girl up into his arms and finished his descent onto the other side of the street, leaving the oncoming car already halfway through the intersection and not even knowing the damage it could have caused.

Tamaki stopped for a moment to catch his breath, holding onto the girl in his arms tightly with her arms wrapped around his neck and her little eyes peeking out from under her coat of hair. She saw a large group of people staring at her and her savior, a lot of them looking pale faced and a few mothers looking teary eyed. She felt herself being pulled back out of the crevice of the strange mans neck and looking directly into his face again.

"Are you okay?" He asked. His voice was very pleasant to listen to, even with the slight hint of distress mixed into his voice. She had decided that he was a nice person and could be trusted.

"Yea," She replied, looking up at his bright blonde hair and admiring how shiny it was. She immediately reached one of her hands up to touch it and she heard the stranger laugh as she petted it.

"Aw, you're too cute to be mad at," Tamaki started, doting on the little girl before he finally realized that he had a more important matter at hand. "but I need you to realize that what you just did was dangerous."

The little girl let go of Tamaki's hair and instead stared into his blue eyes which she also thought were pretty, but she knew that this wasn't the time to not pay attention. He looked very concerned, not mad, just relieved that they both were alright.

"It's not safe to walk out into the street like that, okay? There are a lot of people who don't pay attention while they're driving and could have _really _hurt you and me and that wouldn't have been good at all." Tamaki explained to her, shaking his head a bit along with her.

"Not good at _all_." She repeated, but then immediately started looking around worriedly.

Tamaki noticed her motion and turned around to see the people start to cross the street, but none of them showing any parental ownership over the child.

"Do you see your mommy or daddy?" Tamaki asked the girl, who shook her head in a sad fashion and started to tear up a little bit, sending Tamaki into a frenzy.

"No no! Please don't cry!" Tamaki begged of her, seeing tears start to flow down her face which he rubbed his thumb over in order to wipe away. "If you cry then I'm gonna cry and we don't want that to happen!"

The girl rubbed her eyes and took a deep breath before nodding her head.

"I'm a big girl, I don't cry." She said to herself before using her shirt to dab at her face to dry it.

"That's right, now what is your name, huh?" Tamaki asked, smiling at her as he walked over to the ice cream store they were in front of.

"Aiko." She answered, sniffling a little bit.

"Well, Aiko, do you like ice cream?" Tamaki smiled brightly, pointing to the inside of the ice cream shop to reveal the man inside scooping out the sweet treat into cones for a couple of teenagers.

Aiko nodded vigorously, a small smile spreading across her face as she took one of the arms that was still wrapped around Tamaki's neck and laid her hand on the pane of glass as she watched one of the girls lick her cone.

"How about I buy you some ice cream while I call the police so we can find your mommy, alright?" Tamaki asked Aiko who was already eagerly trying to pull him inside of the ice cream shop.

Haruhi's eyes were practically glued to the window as she watched the entire scenario with Tamaki and the girl go down. It's not that it wasn't heroic but somehow Haruhi couldn't quite wrap her mind around Tamaki saving a little girl like that.

"_Haruhi!_"

She heard someone call her name, but didn't turn around as she kept watching Tamaki across the street talking to the little girl.

"_Haruhi! What are you looking at?_" She heard the voice again. She knew it was her dad, but that was the exact reason that she didn't care to look back.

"Tamaki-senpai just saved a little girl from being hit by a car." Haruhi answered, pointing over to the crosswalk that the scene had gone down at.

"Are you telling me that that good for nothing pervert actually did something _honorable _for once?"

"Yep, that's basically-" Haruhi added, slowly starting to turn around to face her father but was too shocked to continue. Standing there was her dad but dressed in an actual suit, not some extravagant dress, and had his normal, brown hair without his signature red wig. That within itself was enough to stop Haruhi completely as she started wondering _what the hell happened to her father?_

"_Dad?!_" Haruhi exclaimed, mouth dropped and eyes wide with shock. Her dad looked over at her and once he finally registered the initial reason why, he smiled widely and engulfed his daughter in a one sided embrace.

"Oh my precious little _Haruhi! You look surprised!_"

"_Well yea! Kind of!" _Haruhi looked over him again, "_How did this even happen?_"

Ranka let go of Haruhi and stepped back, letting a sly smirk come cross his face, which was Haruhi's first clue that she wasn't going to like what he was about to say.

"You see, Haruhi, I have a confession that I've been hiding from you," Ranka started scratching his head, his feet nervously tapping away as Haruhi still stood there, unable to break her gaze.

"Whatever it is, it can not possibly be more shocking than this," She replied.

"Well, I don't really know how to say this, but _I'm seeing someone!_"

Haruhi all of a sudden felt faint, her father noticing her face growing paler each passing second and quickly pulled out a chair for her to fall into. As he saw Hunny and Mori walk in for their afternoon shift, he barked for them to get some water for Haruhi, and they immediately left and came back, looks of concern shrouding their faces as they noticed that she was not looking very well.

"You're... _seeing_ _someone?_" Haruhi slowly said, letting each syllable drop from her tongue with disbelief mixed into her voice.

"Well," Her father chuckled nervously, "I actually have been for a while, and I truly didn't know how to tell you but I think I'm going to ask her to marry me."

"_It's a woman?!_" Haruhi exclaimed, taking another sip of her water and closing her eyes, rubbing them until she started seeing random colors forming.

Ranka looked offended at his only daughter, "What is _that _supposed to mean?"

Haruhi shook her head, leaning it on top of a table and just sitting there, not even noticing her father's existence anymore. Ranka looked at the two men standing next to him with concern but both of them just shrugged their shoulders, unsure of what to tell him. Soon enough, Ranka just walked away up to his office, shutting the door hard enough for it to resonate throughout the entire building.

Hunny got a little bit closer to Haruhi, sticking out one of his fingers and poking her in the side, just to hear her groan loudly in return.

"Haru-chan, are you alright?" Hunny asked, looking back at Mori for any sign of what to do, but was just met with a single shake of the head.

Another groan escaped her lips, but this time she sat back up and looked at her two seniors standing right by her. She knew that she had just messed up her hair by doing that and her eyes were probably bloodshot from the tears that she hoped no one noticed spilling from her eyes, yet she still looked at them, silently asking what to do despite being unsure of whether she wanted to hear an answer or not.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" Hunny asked, pulling up a chair with Mori as they both held looks of concern.

"Not really," Haruhi sniffed, wiping her eye with the inner part of her forearm.

Hunny and Mori kept nodding, not truly understanding, but were sympathetic nevertheless.

"I have things to do, I'm sorry guys," Haruhi said, standing up, drinking the rest of the water, and walking over to the dishwasher and handing him the glass before she walked back into the kitchen to begin her cooking.

A:N: HEYLO WORLD AND GUESS WHO'S BACK FOR PROBABLY THE 50TH TIME

IF YOU GUESSED THAT IT WAS ME, THE AUTHOR, THEN YOU ARE INDEED CORRECT!

I know I've been gone for another month but I have been for good reason! I had testing for an entire month and I was also trying to keep my spot on grade point average and keep my top ten rank in the grade so I had to do a lot of sacrificing in order to do that. (Then I had my one week of not leaving the house and only watching anime buT SHHHHHHHHH)

Anywhosie, I hope you loved the chapter! I really liked writing the part with Tamaki and the little girl because if I'm being completely honest, daddy Tamaki is my aesthetic so

Alrighty, so review, favorite, follow, do whatever your little heart desires and I hope you have a good rest of the day! (Or night if you're up at this horrendous time of the night with me)(It's like 4 AM why am I awake)(Actually it's not but whatever I should probably be going to bed now so night night!)


	6. Chapter 6

Rose White Piano Keys

Chapter Six

Haruhi crept around the corner into the hallway leading up to her dad's office. She had a lot of time to think about what her father had told her a few weeks prior and if she was being completely honest, she still didn't have a very good opinion on it. Of course this wasn't a matter of her life being tossed around but even the thought of him betraying her mother like that left a bad taste on her tongue. Well, betraying was a strong word but nevertheless it was the only one that came to mind when she replayed their conversation over and over in her head.

As she stood in front of the large oak door, she almost hesitated to knock. The last thing she really wanted to do was argue with him but she had important matters to speak with him about and this wasn't about to stop her.

Slowly, she opened it to reveal her father sitting in his leather chair, his back hunched over and his hands rubbing his eyes while he groaned over a stack of papers standing in front of him. When his eyes trailed up to see his precious little daughter standing there though, he immediately jumped out of his chair and engulfed her into a hug, not even bothering to take it easy on her small, frail body.

"_Oh Haruhi! You've come to see your daddy!_"

Haruhi rolled her eyes, easily annoyed by the over whelming display of affection.

"I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Hm?"

Ranka let go of her, taking a step back and examining her cute, but serious face.

"I... don't really know how to say this," Haruhi started, walking farther into her father's office and sitting in one of the red velvet chairs positioned by the massive window that took up the entire left wall.

"Oh, whatever it is can't _possibly _be bad! You can always tell your daddy anything!" Ranka squealed with glee. He sat down directly in front of Haruhi and poured himself a glass of water, taking a long sip from it before he redirected his attention back to the matter at hand. The first thing he noticed was Haruhi's inability to keep her leg still; it was bopping up and down in rapid repetitive motions and it almost always meant that Haruhi was nervous.

"Well, I've been thinking a lot about how you want me to take over the business, but I'm not sure if that's what _I_ actually want to do," Haruhi continued. Immediately Ranka felt his muscles tense and his face drop in disappointment; after working so hard to give Haruhi a good life she was just going to give up on all of this? "and I really wanna be like mom. I want to help people and make a difference and... I want to be a lawyer."

"A lawyer?"

"Yes."

Her look of optimism made Ranka upset with what he was about to say.

"No."

Haruhi's face twisted into one of confusion and hurt; that was most certainly not the reaction she had been hoping for.

"Why not?" She asked, a small tear escaping her eye but she slowly wiped it away with her inner forearm.

"What would happen to the business if you just left it?" Ranka replied back, sipping his water again and waiting for Haruhi to say something. She went completely silent and let her eyes trail down to meet the floor.

"... nothing..." She mumbled, exhaling a deep breath that she didn't realize she had been holding.

Ranka looked at her. Her shaggy brown hair was kind of covering her face so he didn't know if she was crying or not, but it was still slightly sad to look at. He almost reconsidered his answer but thought about how his advisers had warned him against that and immediately stopped.

"Haruhi? Are you okay?" He asked, but was met with her shaking her head aggressively and standing up. She quickly made her way to the door and was back into the hallway before she could hear her father say anything else.

Haruhi wasn't crying really but the feeling inside her heart was bothering her. All her life she had this great supportive father who always seemed to love and care for her well being more than anything else, and she understood that he was just trying to do what he thought was best for her, but somehow that still really bothered her that he didn't even consider it.

Could it be the influence of the woman he was seeing?

Haruhi sure hoped not.

"Hey, Haruhi, are you alright?"

Her head popped up at the sound of Tamaki's voice closing in on her. She saw the tall blonde walk out of the kitchen with two trays in his hands and his vest soaking wet, which Haruhi could only assume was the work of a child throwing a tantrum with a drink in their hands as she so often witnessed.

"I've had better days, but thanks for the concern."

Tamaki nodded his head and started his descent towards the table he was serving. Sure enough, there sat a little boy with an empty glass flailing his arms all around and crying loudly. She let a little smile spread across her face when she saw Tamaki grin at that kid and hand all of the plates to the guests before bowing and returning in Haruhi's direction.

"That child is going to grow up to be like the twins, I just know it," Tamaki grumbled as he leaned against the wall next to Haruhi while he waited for the next plate to come out of the kitchen.

"I don't know, you handled that a lot better than if that were Hikaru or Kaoru." Haruhi replied, letting her eyes wander around the cafe. She could hear Tamaki scoff playfully before her eyes hit the large black piano sitting in the corner of the room, standing there in all of it's spectacular glory.

"Tamaki, can you please do me a favor?"

"Of course."

"Could you please play the piano for me?"

Tamaki's eyes widened a little bit at the slightly unexpected request. The restaurant wasn't really abuzz but there were more people there than what he felt comfortable leaving Kyoya with. On the other hand, could he say no to his boss' daughter? Not if he wanted to keep his job.

"I'd love to," Tamaki started, looking back around the large room and spotting the two people he was looking for handing menu's to a new table full of customers. "if you could just give me one moment, please."

He quickly walked through the middle of the floor, avoiding all the tables and pulled back chairs until he finally was mere feet away from the twins.

"Hikaru, Kaoru, I need both of you to cover my shift for me." Tamaki commanded, making eye contact with the father of the family seated before him and smiling awkwardly.

"What?"

"No way, boss."

"What if I tell you that Haruhi asked me to play the piano for her and I'm not about to get fired," Tamaki started again, which caused one of the twins to scoff and the other one to laugh darkly.

"It's about time." Hikaru mumbled under his breath, taking three plates off of the table and placing them on the enormous tray he was carrying that held stacks after stacks of dirty, empty dishes.

"Maybe Ranka will finally pull through with his threat and fire your sorry ass." Kaoru agreed, using a wet rag to clean the table of the various stains that the previous guests had left on it and smirking slightly when he heard Tamaki groan loudly right behind them.

"What would it take to get you two to just do this _one _thing for me?"

The twins exchanged mischievous looks, which out of Tamaki's personal experience, never meant a good thing.

"Well, it would sure help if we could take a few shifts off next week, wouldn't it, Kaoru?" Hikaru absent mindedly said out loud as Kaoru released a loud yawn behind him and nodded his head in agreement.

"That would be awesome, but there is _no way _Ranka would do that for us if we don't have someone to cover the shifts, Hikaru." Kaoru replied, shaking his head solemnly as he pretended to not know what possibly to do in this situation.

Tamaki gritted his teeth as he knew _exactly _what the twins wanted from him and for the slightest of moments, he just considered quitting instead. They never ceased to make his life hard in that way.

"_Fine._" Tamaki agreed, watching as the twins grinned wildly before they high fived each other. He turned his attention back towards the piano where Haruhi was already waiting for him.

"I get the feeling that you're holding onto more than you'd like me to know." Tamaki wondered out loud as he sat down on the bench, stretching his arms quickly before allowing his hands to hover over the keys.

"It's a long story," Haruhi started, looking over the piano and through the window where she had witnessed Tamaki saving the little girl's life.

"Well, lucky for you I have plenty of time," He replied as his right hand slowly touched the beautiful ivory keys, playing a slow repetition of a lullaby's melody.

Haruhi stared slightly swaying to the music, enjoying the sweet, innocent sound of the song Tamaki was playing, it seemed slow, yet graceful and full of passion.

"Have you ever felt... betrayed?" Haruhi asked. The sudden question caught Tamaki off guard, his left hand slipping and hitting a wrong note, but he quickly recovered.

"On more than one occasion, yes." He answered, letting his eyes leave the keys and looking over at Haruhi, still staring at the crosswalk and not wavering. "Why do you ask?"

She sighed heavily, her eyes slightly rolling while she remembered her conversation with her father an hour prior.

"When I was a child, my mother died." Haruhi started, gulping slightly as she started to wonder where to go from there while Tamaki awaited patiently. "I always looked up to her, the way she would fight for what she just _knew _was right and how she loved her job, everyday she told me that she was going to do her best and work and every day she did."

"I'm sure she was an amazing woman." Tamaki agreed, watching as Haruhi nodded her head in response.

"She was the type of woman I strive to be. _I _want to be a lawyer. _I _want to make a difference and by able to tell my daughter one day that I'm going to do my best."

"I'm confused, Haruhi. What does this have to do with betrayal?"

"Just now, I went up to my dad to tell him that I don't want the business, that I wanted to be a lawyer instead. He's always supported me in what I want to do, so I automatically assumed that he would say that I should follow my dreams but he immediately shot me down." Haruhi started to explain. Tamaki listened intently, nodding his head.

"You've always felt like he was there for you and always wanted you to be happy but now you just feel betrayed that he won't let you follow in your own mother's footsteps instead of his." Tamaki finished Haruhi's thought for her, continuing his song on the piano but starting to crescendo into a loud pattern of repetitive harsh eighth notes.

"That's... more or less what I'm trying to say." Haruhi agreed, sighing loudly and closing her eyes, rubbing them hard enough that colors started to form.

Tamaki was momentarily at a loss for words, he didn't know if trying to relate to her situation would just make her more upset or if it would actually even give her comfort, but after a minute of Haruhi looking miserable on the piano bench next to him, he knew he had to at least say something.

"I'm not going to act like I completely understand what you're going through because I don't. I can see that it's really hard on you though and I'm sure eventually Ranka will see that too and perhaps give in. He never was the type to be able to break your heart anyway." Tamaki explained as he cracked a slight grin. Haruhi had giggled at his last statement and had pushed her hair out of the way of her face to reveal a small, pure hearted smile that made him feel good inside.

"I'm sure Suko's still cooking in the back if you would like for her to make you something. I know that food always manages to cheer Hunny and I up when we're sad." Tamaki offered as soon as his song ended. The brunette next to him proceeded to get up, bowing low to her friend and whispering a soft thank you before she made her way towards the kitchen.

* * *

As everyone was closing up shop that night, Hikaru and Kaoru opened the employee door of the restaurant and immediately caught a glimpse of the dark brown hair of Haruhi sitting on the old wooden bench to the right. If she had noticed them, she didn't say anything, and the awkward silence that had accumulated made the twins exchange questioning glances.

"Hey." The twins greeted as they slowly started to walk by. Haruhi forced her head up and gave a halfhearted smile towards the pair, not returning their greeting before crossing her legs and not paying attention anymore.

Kaoru started to continue walking ahead, while Hikaru stayed behind for a moment and let his eyes linger on the girl. He would be lying if he tried to say that he did not over hear her conversation earlier with Tamaki, but he didn't know if it would be crossing boundaries if he tried to tell her what he honestly thought about it.

Well, he always was one for crossing boundaries anyway.

"Haruhi, just do whatever the hell you want alright. In the end you have to do what makes you happy." Hikaru spoke up, watching as his colleague's eyes raised themselves to meet his. For a second he could have sworn that they were shining, almost as if she had finally gotten the optimism that she needed from his two on-the-spot sentences. As she flashed him a quick smile and whispered a soft thank you to him, he stuffed his hands in his pockets and started to catch up to his brother who was already at the gate at the end of the dirt path.

* * *

A:N: Aye okay so lemme tell y'all something.

I know it's been almost a year since I last updated this story but it's been a real busy year. (Not to mention I had the worst writers block during this chapter. Honestly I had 3/4 of this chapter written out probably three days after I last updated but I didn't know how to end it, but sadly that happens to the best of us sometimes.)

But, even knowing all that, I genuinely hope you enjoyed the chapter. Favorite and follow to your hearts desire, and reviews would also be nice. I promise the wait won't be quite as long for the next chapter and I guess I'll hear from you guys then *Insert peace sign emoji*


End file.
